ABSTRACT
The successful transfer and eventual implementation of a policy is heavily dependent on the relationship between the context from which it came and that to which it is transferred. In Chapter 2, Vinke-de Kruijf and Özerol elaborates on the numerous ways in which this relationship is understood and analysed by different streams of literature. This chapter will provide a thorough explanation of one theoretical lens, which has been used extensively to examine water governance and implementation related processes: Contextual Interaction Theory (CIT). The basic premise from which CIT begins is that context matters, and quite a lot. While Chapter 2 focuses on the processes associated with the transfer of a policy, CIT is used here to provide a way to understand the internal processes that occur once the governance actors have decided to move forward to the implementation of the chosen policy. The purpose of introducing such a theory here is that it provides an analytical framework that helps to assess whether a policy transfer contributes to or damages conditions for successful water management. This chapter goes beyond addressing the likelihood of policy transfers and focuses on the degree of success of such transfers. Once a policy transfer is in principle accepted, like water management based at the river basin scale or stakeholder participation, it will be confronted with an existing governance regime. This confrontation can provide resistance or simply encapsulate what is new rather than really change to adapt to the new concepts or principles. Further, if the existing arrangements do undergo change there is no guarantee that the ideas that worked so well in the originating context will be able to contribute to the quality of water governance in the new context in which they are being applied.
